Some bizarre wild-caught or laboratory specimens of Heliconius and heliconiine butterflies thought to be mutants or phenotypic aberrations (including homeotics) rather than hybrids.
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An odd-looking Eueides ("New Granada, Hewitson coll., Eueides edias" -- NHM, London) |
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Neruda aoede - forewing-bandless mutant (Yurimaguas, Peru, Dec 2005, Mathieu Joron) |
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Heliconius melpomene, crossover within DR gene (Tarapoto Peru, 1986, J. Mallet [1989] Proc. Roy. Soc. 236:163-185, Plate 2 Fig. 4) |
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Heliconius erato, crossover within DR gene (Tarapoto Peru, 1986, J. Mallet [1989] Proc. Roy. Soc. 236:163-185, Plate 2 Fig. 4) |
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Heliconius cydno x H. melpomene interspecific hybrid, gynandromorph, artificially reared (Austin, Tx., 2001, L.E. Gilbert) |
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Heliconius charithonia bassleri aberration (Colombia, Luis Miguel Constantino) |
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Heliconius erato homeotic (Sirena,
Corcovado, Costa Rica 1981, J. Mallet). The right hindwing upperside is normal, but the overall shape of the hindwing, as well as the venation, is distorted by the partial homeosis on the underside. I was involved in a mark-release-recapture study, and had marked the left side in the field with the number 818, turned the butterfly over, and realized that the right side was homeotic. In retrospect, I should have bred from this beast to try to get a homeotic mutant, though it was almost certainly purely somatic. |
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Heliconius erato, crossover within DRy gene (Tarapoto Peru, 1986, J. Mallet [1989] Proc. Roy. Soc. 236:163-185, Plate 2 Fig. 4) |